New Article: The Fossil-Fueled Roots of Climate Inaction in Authoritarian Regimes

[William Kakenmaster]

Dear colleagues,

Apologies for cross-posting, but I wanted to share a new article that may be of interest to those working on fossil fuel wealth, political institutions, authoritarian regimes, and climate change. The title and abstract are pasted below, and you can access the FirstView version Open Access here: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592724000793.

All the best,

Bill Kakenmaster

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Title: The Fossil-Fueled Roots of Climate Inaction in Authoritarian Regimes

Abstract: Why do some authoritarian regimes contribute more to climate change than others? I suggest that climate inaction in nondemocracies is shaped by a combination of fossil fuel wealth and executive constraints. Fossil fuel wealth undermines climate action by giving leaders of authoritarian regimes incentives to capture oil and gas rents that help them maintain power. Executive constraints, however, can restrict carbon-intensive rent-seeking and therefore moderate the role of fossil fuel wealth in undermining climate action. This argument provides a novel explanation for variation in efforts to address climate change among nondemocracies: the lack of institutional constraints on autocratic leaders’ use of fossil fuel wealth for political gain. I evaluate this argument using panel data on greenhouse gas emissions, oil and gas income, and executive constraints in 108 countries governed by authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2021, finding that oil and gas income leads to higher emissions, but that these effects decline significantly with executive constraints.

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Bill Kakenmaster

PhD Candidate, University of Notre Dame

2060 Jenkins Nanovic Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46657

Email: wkak...@nd.edu